Dance in the Dark

Dance in the Dark

Flora_Winters

Disclaimer: I do not own James Cameron’s Avatar. It all belongs to him. I’m not making any money off writing this story either.

Summary: Can a true love survive destiny? Grace has a nephew and he’s sort of crazy. Don’t worry. He has good reasons. Language, MM, OC, Violence

Chapter One

Musical chanting filled the floral scented air with an almost magical charge. The harmonized vocals flowed and coursed like a swift, dancing river.

Kerry walked amidst colorful flowers and falling petals. His pale hair floated about his face like shining strands of white light.

The world was alive with pulsing power and glowing all around him. All of the invisible voices reminded him of the sound distant thunder and falling rain made.

Luminous pink mists danced within the darkness between the swaying trees. Leafy branches and blooming vines seemed to reach out and coil just to softy touch his naked flesh.

Strange, alien scents tickled his nose and the wild sounds of primordial nature tackled him with such stunning beauty. Time felt as though it was frozen at a standstill and he was passing it by. He was dazzled by all the streaming lights and his breathing stilled when he felt warm arms embracing him from behind.

“Tom?”

He received a bubble soft chuckle and a playful caress. And just like a delicate little bubble, the dream popped.

His azure eyes blinked open and he stared up at the flat ceiling. The tiny room was cast in soft violet light as he slowly sat up on his little bed. It was a small place his aunt had made him that was out of the way.

The square room was lined with shelves. Faces in pictures smiled at him, books with worn covers were begging to be read, and a few of the flowers were asking to be hydrated just a little bit.

He rubbed his blurry eyes. It was unusual. He never dreamed. That had been the first dream since…Tom had been murdered.

He stared at the warm violet light that was shining down on the healthy green plants. His aunt had given them to him since he couldn’t have a pet. It was like some sort of responsibility thing. It was up to him to take care of them and keep them alive.

It was little wonder his aunt had never married. She loved plants more than anything else.

Where he had come from, there was no green. This new world was a green paradise, and just like his already dead home, the air was cruelly poisonous to him.

He was 29, but didn’t look any older than sixteen. And like a teen, he still wanted to go running through the forest and climb trees. It had been his first impulse when arriving on this green and blue moon.

In school books, back when his planet was still green, children had had things called tree houses. He had only ever seen a real one in a rundown museum. The tree, of course, had been plastic.

He looked at his youthful face in the mirror across from him. Playing with Sleeping Beauty for nearly ten years had done wonders for his glacially smooth complexion, but his looks were now just as poisonous to him as the air outside. He no longer had the person who had enjoyed looking at him.

He rose to his feet and the bare floor under them was warm. He had spent most of his night before with what would have been Tom’s avatar.

Just staring into that sleeping face had seemed to calm and soothe him a bit. Just knowing some small part of Tom still existed in this new world made him feel somewhat more secure in some tiny way.

“Open your eyes,” he had whispered, softly pecking on the glass with his knuckles. “Please, open your eyes and look at me, just even for a second.”

The eyes had never opened, but the shoulders had shrugged, as if to apologize to him. At least, that was how he had chosen to see it.

He turned from the oval mirror and began to water the plants. He was now doing what many people back in the old days of his planet had done.

A gentle knock came at his closed door and he turned around.

“Yes?”

“It’s Norm,” the voice outside said. “Your aunt wants you to come with me.”

He carefully put his glass spray bottle down and took four steps, opening up the metal door.

“You could just say hi,” he told the taller man.

Most are taller than him. Playing with Sleeping Beauty for nearly half his life had kept him young and reed thin, but had stunted his growth. His mom, like his aunt, had been giant tall compared to him. His dad had been what some would say, ‘goddamn!’

He stood to Norm’s shoulders.

Norm smiled. “Hi.”

“Let me change,” he told him, backing up a single step. “And I’ll be right out.”

Norm nodded.

He closed the door with a soft click and turned around. Norm and Tom had been good friends, but ever since Tom’s murder, Norm wouldn’t look him in the eyes. Norm made him feel more like a chore than a person.

He shook his head and got dressed. It didn’t take him long at all. He’d bathe later.

“Where are we going?” He asked, opening the door back up.

Norm pushed off the opposite wall. “We’re going to the greenhouse.”

Kerry closed the door to his room behind him, locking it.

Well, it was a good thing he hadn’t bathed. It would have been useless within twenty minutes of being in there.

“I’m going to be quizzing you,” Norm told him, turning to lead the way. “I even made you flashcards.”

Kerry giggled, following a few steps behind him. “You made flashcards?”

It was an ancient method used for studying back on his world.

“Well,” Norm said. “Nothing else seems to be working for you. Your brain is more rock than sponge.”

Kerry actually laughed. “So you do like me.”

Norm stopped and turned around, not really looking at him.

“Your aunt is my boss,” Norm said. “And Tom was my best friend.”

Kerry felt an icy pang, looking down.

“I want to help you get out of these walls so you’ll start to really heal,” Norm went on. “But, I can’t do it all by myself. You have to get up and work for it, too.”

Kerry lifted his head. Had Norm really said that?

“If I ace this quiz,” he said. “Will you start looking me in the eyes when you speak to me?”

Norm suddenly did look him in the eyes.

“Sorry,” he said. “It’s just that you look so much like the Plant Lady.”

Kerry cocked his head to the side. Norm was lying to him. He knew he was. It was more than just that, but he chose to let it go.

Norm looked as if there was more he wanted to say, but his mouth never moved. He instead rested a hand on Kerry’s slender shoulder and squeezed gently.

“Come on,” Norm said. “We better get going. Your aunt is playing around with floral toxins out in the jungle today and I don’t want her mad when she gets back with the samples.”

Kerry nodded. “Can I take a peek at those cards?”

Norm snorted. “But, you study so hard. Why would you need to peek?”

Kerry sighed, but decided to do his best this time. If he didn’t pass, Norm would be blamed right along with him. He didn’t want Norm to get into trouble for his lack of caring about shit.

“I want to help you get out of these walls so you’ll start to really heal.”

He would get out of these walls. He just had to, whether it was with a mask on or off.

~*~

He looked at the picture of the jackal looking beastie. It was small, jet black, and had six legs that were swifter than air. Like a wolf, these creatures traveled in large packs and were capable of taking down an unsuspecting man in a matter of moments.

“A pissed off Viperwolf,” he answered, wiping a bead of sweat from his face.

Damn it was hot. He felt like he was in hell.

Norm put the card down and held up another one.

It was a picture of a Na’Vi male atop a six legged mount. The creature looked fast and powerful, like its muscular rider.

“Direhorse.”

Norm held up a photo of a scary looking monster from a black pit of nightmare. The demon looked as if it could snap a man in two with its powerful maws. It looked faster than a bullet and catlike. Those razor sharp paws were known for slashing through two inches of metal.

“Thanator.”

Norm nodded. “What do the natives call it?”

Kerry scratched his head. He had yet to miss a single question and he wasn’t about to start now.

It was so hot and humid in the greenhouse. This was what it would feel like out there, where all these playful critters were romping in the mud.

“Um,” he drawled for a few breaths, suddenly shouting. “Paluluka!”

“WHERE?” A gardener shouted, throwing himself into a flowering bush with a loud yelp.

Norm narrowed his eyes and Kerry didn’t know what to think. He began apologizing profusely to the angry man, explaining that he was being quizzed, as he helped him up.

“Okay,” Norm said after all the drama. “What is the biggest bird in the sky?”

“Leo something or otheryx,” Kerry said. “But, he’s really bright and colorful, so I know his real name. Toruk.”

Norm nodded. “The natives call their flying mounts Ikran. What do we aliens call them?”

“Banshee.”

“Good,” Norm grinned for the first time. “And the Hammerhead Titanothere?”

Kerry bit his bottom lip. He knew they liked to put on brave fronts. He was told that his aunt had to stare one down. She could look at a missile and it would turn, screaming in another direction.

“Ang…Angst…Angsty…Angtsik!”

Norm placed the cards down on the ground between them. “What do the natives call Hometree?”

Kerry shrugged. “The home the muscle heads are trying to kick them out of, so they can dig up some stupid rock.”

“Close enough,” Norm told him. “But, it is called Kelutrel. It is so massive it makes the long forgotten redwoods of our world look like mere sticks in the mud.”

Kerry could smell the sudden sweet scent of roses. It was a smell that made him instantly think of Tom.

The handsome man had dared to pluck a single blushing blossom and gently plant it like a kiss behind his left ear. If his aunt had ever known about it, he would know who the killer was. Roses were extinct and the bush here was the only one for now. It had been cloned.

“Tell me what you know of Eywa,” he asked Norm. “Tom really seemed to like her.”

Norm did.

“Eywa is the Mother Goddess of Pandora,” he said. “She is the supreme deity of the Na’Vi.”

Kerry knew the man could go on and on about the green spirit.

“She is the naked face of nature and all the power behind it.”

Kerry held up his hand to stop him after a few minutes. “Do you think she is real?”

Using his index finger, Norm drew a circle in the dirt. “Did Tom think she was real?”

Kerry blinked.

Had Tom? He would often speak as if she was. He would often speak of strange dreams and he talked as if the myth were his mother.

“Your aunt seems to think that through the tree root systems,” he said, “The plants are all speaking to each other.”

Kerry looked up from the near perfect circle in the dark soil. “What?”

“All the plants in this world seem to be connected to each other in same way,” he said. “This is why I can’t wait to step into my avatar and see for myself.”

Kerry turned his face to the side.

Tom had told him that the people of their world had once lived alongside the natural world. But, man in his arrogance, grew too bold and slowly murdered their mother with technology and the poison it created.

The green had been wiped completely out. Blue skies were never seen again, and the oceans became rolling waves of black venom. Beaches had been made bone from all the dead marine life.

“This new world is pure,” Tom had tickled his ear during a sweet scented night among blooming orchids. “And if we are not careful, we’ll destroy this one, too.”

Kerry slowly got to his feet. He was starting to remember small things the “Healing Sleep” had caused him to forget about.

“I think we’re done for now,” Norm told him, rising as well. “Are you hungry?”

Kerry nodded. “I think I am.”

“Good,” Norm smiled. “I think I am, too.”

Tom had been a lot like his aunt. He loved the green. He hadn’t wanted to harm this world.

Kerry instantly froze.

Had Tom known something that his aunt didn’t? He knew men could go places a woman couldn’t here. Had he discovered or seen something that had put his life at risk?

“Kerry?” Norm asked. “Are you all right?”

He smiled. “I’m fine.”

No. No he wasn’t fine.

He was pissed the fuck off.

“Let’s go eat,” he said, looking off to where he knew the roses were once again blooming. “I don’t want there to be anything for my aunt to fuss about when her mind decides to come back.”

Norm picked up the quiz cards and began to lead the way. Kerry wasn’t allowed to go anywhere around big men with even bigger guns by himself. His aunt had forbidden him to even so much as think about it.

“Do you really want to go in there?” Norm asked. “I could just bring the food back to the lab?”

He shook his head. He was 29. He wasn’t a little boy.

“Remember,” Norm told him. “Just ignore them.”

He simply nodded. There was little the “Jar Heads” could do to hurt him. Just before his deep sleep, his aunt had seen to it personally that one of the pestering bastards spent most of the day puking and shitting his guts out over a toilet. Two years into his sleep, the bastard had gotten eaten by some lake creature nobody could see. A slimy tentacle had come up out of the water, wrapped around his neck, and pulled him overboard and under in a matter of seconds.

Many thought him spooky. They all knew who his aunt was. It was wise to fear Dr. Grace Augustine. Plus, they could see her in his face. But, what they didn’t know was that he had been in the crazy house.

Sure, he had talked to the nice doctors, but he never told them the truth. Even when Tom had been bleeding all over him and he was dragged kicking and screaming from the lifeless body, he had lied about what he was truly feeling.

Nobody knew what he truly felt like or looked on the inside. Not even the “Healing Sleep” could fix the deeper parts within him.

In reality, he was a beautiful young man, who looked all charming and innocently sweet on the outside. But, within the darkest depths of his aqua blue eyes, he was filled with blood thirsting thorns and another dance with the crazies.

The cold was creeping back into him. He could feel that scary, hollow presence slithering just below the thin surface. It was prowling, stalking within his very veins.

He had to stay calm. He wasn’t ever going to give his aunt a reason to think he needed some more play time with Sleeping Beauty ever again. He was going to try and complete his studies and find his lover’s killer during the goddamn process.

“So,” Norm said, leading him into the less crowded than usual cafeteria. “What do you want to focus your studies on for real?”

A sudden whistle echoed, making him nearly stop and look to see where it had come from. But, he swiftly caught himself before it showed and he ignored the muffled laughter.

“It must be dangerous for a guy to have looks like that,” a deep voice laughed. “If I didn’t have a woman back home, I’d fuck that lily white ass over this table backwards.”

More laughter followed.

Kerry calmly collected food on his tray. So, he was now some stupid Jar Head rape fantasy?

His red lips suddenly twitched upwards of their own accord into a secret, deadly smile.

Did these fools seriously think he feared them?

He’d found his in.

“Na’Vi culture,” he answered Norm, who was glaring over his shoulder at the roudy table.

And all the poisons they play with. I’ll find who took you away from me, Tom. And I’ll make him or her very sorry for ever doing that.

To Be Continued…

Author Note: Please review and tell me what you think. I can’t wait to buy this movie when it comes out on DVD. I’ve bought all the toys and posters. LOL! I’m also looking into buying all the books as well. I’m such a dork. This movie was just that goddamn awesome!

I would like to thank LonelyDove and ina for reviewing so far. Thank you both so very much. In all honesty, I do not know if Jake and Kerry are going to wind up together. I do know that Kerry is going to feel an immediate attraction to Jake and will haunt his rolling wheelchair wherever it did go. As of this moment, Kerry is a loose cannon.

-Flora